The big ad agency has an art event tonight, Why Haven’t You Called, Habibi? in the frame of meet Arab Grandma.
Since humans emerged in Africa, we have been moving around the world. A illuminating account is by Bruce Chatwin in The Songlines, his last book. It has a brief segment too, set in Arab North Africa.
There is a great struggle between modernism and traditionalism in the world. Traditionalism is immediate family first, then extended family, then tribe, often nation does not register at all. Less focus on amusing ourselves to death and material consumption. Modernism is the opposite. Margaret Mead said she did not mourn the passing of the nuclear family because the nuclear family required everyone to like each other. Of course each approach has its extremes, and the ideas can be combined. An ad agency has a self interest in exploring how to communicate in every country to sell sugar water and shoes, so like ethnographers, they have the resources and mission to study culture.
At W+K www.wk.com 224 NW 13th Map 5PM-8 Free
